GUEST OP-ED: Not too late to bolster Trenton police force

The safety of our police officers as they carry out their work in New Jersey’s capital city is paramount, and we need to expand their numbers to keep them safe while they keep us safe.

Increasing the number of Trenton PD patrolmen and women should be a singular focus of City Council president Phyllis Holly-Ward. She should take the lead on achieving this critical imperative and expend the necessary political currency to counteract misguided pushback from people who know nothing about what it takes to execute effective police work in a city that is plagued by shockingly high rates of violent crime.

As the deadline for the city to apply for the federal grant needed to hire back 12 police officers approaches this week, Ms. Holly-Ward should demand from the Mack administration an immediate plan to comply with its financial stipulations. Why business administrator Sam Hutchinson has not produced these details, including his promised plan of revenue enhancements, is puzzling, to say the least.

Council members are often blindsided by last-minute requests from the Mack administration to fund big-ticket policy items. They cannot vote properly without financial details, and it is unfair to ask them to do so. But the reality is that Trenton municipal government is nonsensical and dysfunctional. Taking into consideration Mayor Tony Mack’s performance since he got into office in 2010, I fully expect him to sandbag the Council, but Mr. Hutchinson should know better. While he was hired to organize the connoisseurs of disorder at City Hall, I do not see much evidence of that.

Since Jan. 1, Trenton PD’s dispatchers have handled more than 46,000 calls for service. There have been 96 shootings, 11 of which resulted in death. The city has suffered 14 homicides. Six people were shot over Memorial Day weekend. One gun-toter was a 15-year-old boy, which exemplifies the anti-achievement challenges plaguing our young people. They are seduced by the shadows of the streets in a city that offers up few opportunities.

A total of 122 police officers work Trenton’s streets. Divide 46,000 by 122. That is one police officer for every 377 calls to the police radio room. We simply do not have enough cops to meet Trentonians’ demands for service.

This is a defining moment for City Council members to act on behalf of their constituents, to demonstrate that they have the leadership to authorize the necessary funding to put more cops on the beat. They must not surrender to what is politically expedient or safe, despite Mayor Mack’s well-known anti-police posture and penchant for empty policy-making. They can demand that Mr. Hutchinson perform. He should spend the entire day on Tuesday running the numbers for the Council, and present them at its regular meeting.

Unchecked lawlessness and insufficient police manpower are eroding our city’s reputation. Trenton is overrun with gun-toting, drug-dealing criminals who perpetuate the perception that Trenton is not a safe place to live or even to visit. Businesses choose to move to Hamilton or elsewhere to escape the threat to their lives and livelihoods. People who do not have to travel here for work or to transact business choose instead to stay away entirely, weakening our local economy and limiting the number of patrons for restaurants and other small businesses that depend upon steady customer traffic to survive.

It has been almost three years since the Trenton Police Department was hobbled by a shortsighted decision and City Council vote that laid off 105 police officers. Since then, neither the Mack administration nor the City Council have devised ways to provide long-term, sustainable funding for the police to ensure organizational health and increase the morale of the men and women who do a fine job under difficult circumstances.

In the meantime, the City Council will have to take some more political heatto do Mayor Mack’s joband work with Hutchinson to find the money in the municipal budget to secure the federal grant that will restore a dozen police officers to Trenton’s force. The police department needs the full support of the city’s law-abiding citizenry to accomplish its work.

Ms. Holly-Ward, I ask that you act courageously, swiftly and decisively; to lead where others will not; to encourage the necessary Council votes on Tuesday that will strengthen the very safety and economic success of our city.

We must hire back 12 of our finest police officers to protect and serve.

— Michael Walker is a city activist who blogs about the performance of Trenton municipal government. His radio show, Slipstream, airs every Thursday at 5 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM. Download the TuneIn app on your smartphone to listen or visit wbcb1490.com to stream the live broadcast.